There's been a tug of war between aesthetically pleasing and safe when it comes to American embassies around the world.

Many embassies have been slammed as bunkers, bland cubes and lifeless compounds. Even the new Secretary of State John Kerry said just a few years ago, "We are building some of the ugliest embassies I've ever seen."

But the choice between gardens and gates isn't just academic for diplomats — it can affect the way they work.
— npr.org

Previously: All the glamour of a corporate office block & American Embassy Buildings Increasingly Getting Ugly View full entry »

More visibly, this shift means that the familiar security architecture of airports and international borders – checkpoints, scanners, ID cars, cordons, security zones – start to materialise in the hearts of cities. What this amounts to, in practice, is an effort to roll out the well-established architecture and surveillance of the airport to parts of the wider, open city.
— The Guardian

Amidst news of the austere, lean venues and reviews of the architectural highlights constructed, Stephen Graham professor of cities and society at Newcastle University and author of Cities Under Siege, reminds us that London 2012 will see the UK's biggest mobilisation of military... View full entry »